Momplex

Do you work with your spouse on projects? Now be honest with me. Do you always get along? What happens when you both have different ideas for doing the same thing? Imagine working on a Momplex together!

I am so proud to tell you that we have indeeded finished putting up all the drywall in the Momplex! You know the upstairs has been done for quite a while. But then we stopped and put in an above the floor heat system in the upstairs. We kept the downstairs free of drywall to hook up all the water lines to the upstairs heat system. But that wasn't the only thing keeping us from finishing up the Momplex. Biggest hurdle? The weather. Normally, spring comes in April in Alaska for

Well, we got the memo.

Mother Nature has made it pretty clear - winter is coming.  

And soon.

The leaves have changed to brilliant reds and yellows, and what's left of our wild Alaska blueberries are barely hanging on.

The mountains are not just snow capped any longer.  They are snow covered.

Winter is on it's way, and it will be here until May.  

And of course w

My friend Kate made me a believer.

When it came time to install a countertop for the Momplex Vanilla kitchen, we did go have a solid surface countertop priced out.  

The cost of the solid surface countertop was MORE than the entire kitchen!!!  And it would take 8 weeks and we'd have to pay for a full travel day each time someone drove to the site to measure, fit and install the countertop (yes, we are to blame there for living in the sticks in Alaska).

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What about windows and doors?Early DayWe had to call it a day the other day after getting just the first two rows of ARXX blocks up.  As eager as we all were to see more rows go up, up here on this windy hill, none of us wanted to see the blocks flying through the air, probably landing in our yard a mile away.Pattern SetGetting the first two rows up is actually a major accomplishment because you create the pattern for the entire home.  You want the seams all staggered in the same spots

It has been torture waiting for plywood day! We put the upstairs floor joists up, and I thought the very next day I'd be getting a sun tan on a roof top deck. Not so much the case ... we built stairs, backfilled, insulated ... just to name a few projects that had to get done as I tried not to glance up at those open floor joists ... and finally it's plywood day. (I'll be blogging about all the other projects we've been up to as well in the next coming bit). Hooray for plywood day!

On this day, I was very thankful to be a mom. And an Aunty. Because on this very long day, or should I say very long several days, not so much fun work happened at the Momplex. And someone had to stay home and take care of the little girls. Be comforted, honey. Most times, I'd rather be working up on the Momplex than taking on the endless cycle of dishes, dinner, loosing the desert battle, and then dishes all over again. Yes, in my house, dishes seem to come before and after cook

Man is our list ever getting short! We've just got a few things left to do before winter hits hard in Alaska. When we went on book tour, it really put a huge amount of stress on us to get as much done as possible while we can work and still feel our fingers at the same time. Numb fingers are no fun. Working at 50 degrees is a totally different story than working at -50 degrees. There was a lot of this going on as we worked late - even on school nights - trying to get as much done

So let's just say you got a team of two building a kitchen, and one hates painting and the other can't paint.

Well, it's not that I couldn't paint.  They say occassional painting in a well ventilated area is fine for pregnant women.  

But up here in Alaska, in the cold winter months, working inside a poured in place concrete building, with no ventilation, where your full time job is to build and paint or stain furniture, it's not occassional and it's not well vent

I thought we were moving along on DIYing the most massive of projects - the Momplex, a duplex for our to very deserving mothers - just fine last week when we built the window bucks Followed by the door bucksAnd then we did the same . . . times 10  . . . for the garage doors.The garage doors are supported in the centers, in preparation for the concrete pour,  You'll see the same get done for windows and doors before the mud arrives.We thought we were moving right along.But then this

If you don't mind a leaky basement, if you don't mind soggy carpet, a "smell" that you just can't get rid ... don't bother reading this post. Today I am going to show you one of those not so glamorous or fun tasks that you must do to build a house right. But it can effect the comfort and usability - not to mention value - of your home incredibly. Today, we are going to waterproof the below grade foundation of the Momplex!

Thank you for sticking with us as we stuck out this winter. 

And boy, what a winter it was for us up in Alaska.  This winter, more than once, I asked myself why we live here.  It was a tough one.

And I was most thankful to not be battling snow, wind, and deathly cold temperatures trying to work on the Momplex.  Or say we had got the roof on - thank for cheering us on! - it would have been dreadful to pay for temporary heat just to get the Moms moved in a few months ea